Matt Secor: ‘I’m Going to Submit’ Abuakbar Nurmagomedov at WSOF 35

While his overall year in 2016 was a positive one for welterweight Matt Secor, it did start of rather auspiciously.

In January, Secor was supposed to take on veteran Josh Koscheck at Bellator 148, but an injury cancelled the fight, leading to an eventual match against Koscheck’s teammate Chris Honeycutt in April, which Secor lost.

“The year was supposed to start off with a bang, I was supposed to fight Josh Koscheck, but that fell through,” Secor told MMAWeekly.com. “I can only control with me showing up for a fight, not the other opponent. It’s part of the sport. It happens.

“I ended up fighting (Honeycutt), and it not going my way, losing by decision. I don’t like losing at anything I do. I don’t know if it motivates me more or whatnot, but yeah, definitely, I still lose sleep over that fight.”

Secor was able to right his ship, and rebounded in July with a win over Ricardo Funch in Premier FC. Secor then spent the remainder of the year establishing his new gym.

“I ended up finishing the year by defeating Ricardo Funch and finishing him,” said Secor. “Then I opened up my own academy (in November). So the year ended up being very productive.

“I brought of instructors with me from my old academy. It helps me out now that I have my own academy to train at. I can structure my workouts the way I want to. I have instructors to carry the slack when I’m in a fight camp.”

Secor (8-3) will look to pick up his first win of 2017 when he returns to World Series of Fighting on March 18 in Verona, New York, to take on Abuakbar Nurmagomedov (13-1) in a main card 170-pound bout.

“I like that he’s a tough guy with a really good record,” Secor said of Nurmagomedov. “That’s what I’m looking for; I want to fight the toughest guys in the business.

“He likes to grapple, he likes to throw punches and likes to wrestle, and I like to do all that stuff too. I’m going to submit him within the fight – from my guard, from the top, from the back – from wherever the position, I’m going to submit him.”

For Secor moving forward, what matters isn’t so much titles, as it is fighting the best possible opposition he can for whatever promotion will allow him to do so.

“The overall goal is to fight the best guys in the business,” said Secor. “I think there are some people who are (at the top of the sport) who don’t deserve to be there, and I would like to exploit that.

“(Fighting for titles) doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s a materialistic thing to me. I just want to fight the tough fights.”